It is my sad duty to let you know that Mr. Iwao Fujimoto has passed away last week. He was 97.Mr. Fujimoto was until a few years ago the president of the Japanese Armour Society. He was an icon in the armour world.He was always very, very kind to me over the 8-9 or so years that I have known him. He was very proud that he helped to organize the big armour exhibition in Belgium for Europalia '89, and when he gave a lecture always pointed to me, the local Belgian resident... Until a few months ago, he still attended all meetings. He was very knowledgeable.

During the wake this evening in Tokyo, the who is who in the Japanese armour world came together to pay their respect. His father figure will be missed.

Me, with Mr. Muneyuki Myôchin who passed away in 2011, and Mr. Fujimoto.

I have now become the official representative of the society for people outside of Japan and I'm more then willing to help people who want to become a member. Please contact me via the email on the about page if you are interested.

News has reached us that Mr. Muneyuki Myôchin (明珍宗恭) passed away on January 17 2011. He was considered the last armour smith in the famous Myôchin-line, and was maybe most famous for his fabulous work on the armours in the film The Seven Samurai from Akira Kurosawa. I was fortunate enough to have met Mr. Myôchin a few times here in Japan.

An interesting article about his life and work can be found here. A book on his life can be found on the Amazon.co.jp website.

Me, Mr. Myôchin and Mr. Fujimoto, former president of the Armour society (October 2009)

Yesterday we had our last meeting of the year and traditionally also the end of the year party (bounenkai 忘年会).

Miura sensei, of the very few real armour makers (甲冑師), together with his student Andy Mancabelli, gave some explanation about some restoration projects they have done (as also seen on television here in Japan). Andy gave also some explanation about the akodanari he is making under Mirua sensei's guiding, and a mempo he has been restoring. Miura sensei gave a very interesting work in progress of a maedate he is making, based on a kabuto that was on display at the great Samurai exhibition at the Mets at the end of 2009.

And then their was the always enjoyable party where it is always great to hear some interesting armour gossip and news.

I would like to repeat once more that it has now become extremely easy also for people outside of Japan to become a member of the society via their renewed website: www.japanese-armor.org.